1922 Lithuanian parliamentary election

none Lithuania 1918 1920 1923 All 78 seats in the Seimas 40 1922 10 10 1922 10 11 yes Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party Mykolas Krupavičius 17.11 15 24 Peasant Union Kazys Grinius 16.84 14 19 Lithuanian Labour Federation Pranas Radzevičius 12.44 11 15 Farmers' Association Eliziejus Draugelis 12.07 12 18 Social Democratic Party of Lithuania Steponas Kairys 10.42 11 13 Workers' Group of Lithuania 4.96 5 new Zionist Group 4.27 3 new Democratic Jewish Union Central Polish Electoral Committee Kazimierz Janczewski 4.05 1 3 LDVK 1.35 1 new Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party 1.05 5 9 Prime Minister Prime Minister after election Ernestas Galvanauskas LKDP-LDF-ŪS Ernestas Galvanauskas LKDP-LDF-ŪS 1922 Lithuanian parliamentary election - Results by constituency.svg Results by constituency. Parliamentary elections were held in Lithuania on 10 and 11 October 1922,Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen Philip Stöver 2010 Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook Nomos 978-3-8329-5609-7 1201 electing 78 members of the First Seimas. They were the first elections held in Lithuania under the 1922 constitution, which had been adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 1 August 1922. 38 out of 78 seats were won by a bloc of parties led by the Christian Democrats, and they acquired both the positions of President and Prime Minister, occupied by Aleksandras Stulginskis and Ernestas Galvanauskas respectively. In both cases, however, the Christian Democrats were not supported by any party in the opposition and could only form a minority government. Unable to work with such a makeup, the First Seimas was dissolved on 12 March 1923. Electoral system The law on the conduct of Seimas elections was promulgated by the Constituent Assembly on 19 July 1922, and published in the official newspaper of the government, "Vyriausybės žinios" (Government News) on 27 July 1922.Vyriausybės žinios, 1922, Nr. 98 Elections were universal, free and secret, and all citizens of Lithuania, both men and women over 21 years old, were allowed to vote. Citizens 24 years old or older were allowed to stand for election. The elections were held with party-list proportional representation, in nine multi-member constituencies. In practice, only six of the nine defined constituencies held elections, as Constituencies VII, VIII and IX were allocated to territories of the self-proclaimed Polish puppet state of Central Lithuania following Żeligowski's Mutiny during the Polish–Lithuanian War in 1920.Vyriausybės žinios, 1922, Nr. 98 Their centers were Vilnius, Lida and Grodno respectively. Seats in constituencies were distributed by largest remainder method. Parties and electoral groups (kuopa) were allowed to submit lists of candidates to constituencies, which had to be signed by at least fifty voters. As such, there was a large number of small electoral lists in every constituency. However, the method of calculating the distribution of seats in each constituency benefited larger parties, as such, the only non-party electoral group which managed to gain seats were lists submitted by the underground Communist Party of Lithuania. Initially, voting was designed to take place only one day, but several days before the elections law was amended to allow two days of voting (with possibility of a third day of voting).https://www.epaveldas.lt/preview?id=C10000143886-1922-Nr.109 EPaveldas Three days of voting took place in Kelmė.https://www.epaveldas.lt/preview?id=LNB00AD2076-1922-Spal.18 EPaveldas Competing parties The largest and most active electoral alliance in the election was the Christian Democratic Bloc, formed from the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party and two satellite organizations - Labour Federation, which represented Catholic workers, and Farmers' Association, which represented Catholic peasantry. The Christian Democratic Bloc was strongly supported by the Lithuanian priesthood, which had a strong influence in the agrarian and less literate countryside, and numerous priests were a part of their electoral lists.Noreikienė, Sigita (1978) Bourgeoisie parties in Seimas elections during the bourgeoisie parliamentary regime in Lithuania 1920-1926. LSSR MA Works, series A, tome IV, p. 76-80 However, the Christian Democrats were isolated in the political arena. Historically, LKDP evolved from a different stream of the Lithuanian National Revival than all of their competitors - the Peasant Union, Social Democrats and Party of National Progress (later the Lithuanian Nationalist Union). All of them evolved from the secular nationalist newspaper Varpas, while the Christian Democrats evolved around the Catholic periodical Tėvynės sargas.Tamošaitis, Mindaugas (2011) Historiography of Lithuanian political parties and ideological currents in 1918-1940. "Istorija" mokslo darbai, tome 84. http://archyvas.istorijoszurnalas.lt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=412&Itemid=408 https://web.archive.org/web/20210830115354/http://archyvas.istorijoszurnalas.lt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=412&Itemid=408 2021-08-30 [retrieved August 30 2021] The alliance of the Peasant Union and Popular Socialist Party presented itself as socialist and campaigned for secularization and the lifting of martial law. Though the main targets of the criticism were Christian Democrats and National Progress,Lietuvos žinios, "Saviors of Lithuania Progress-Farmers Blame Others", 1922 09 10, p. 1-2 they were also in opposition to the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats presented their electoral campaign as the first step towards a peaceful socialist revolution and campaigned for a "Seimas of the workers".Socialdemokratas, "How to prepare for the permanent Seimas", 1922 08 24, p. 2 All political parties supported the land reforms put in place by the Constituent Assembly, and oftentimes argued that their competitors will be the ones to roll back the reform.Lietuva, "In the whirlwind of elections - announcement by the Labour Federation", 1922 10 07, p. 1-2 Separate electoral lists by the Polish, Jewish and Russian minorities also competed in the election. Results #F8F9FA 5 Workers' Group of Lithuania 11 Social Democratic Party of Lithuania 5 Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party 14 Peasant Union 1 Group of Polish Workers and Peasants 1 Central Polish Electoral Committee 3 Democratic Jewish Union 11 Lithuanian Labour Federation 12 Farmers' Association 15 Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party 138912 15 –9 Peasant Union 136713 14 –5 Labour Federation 101024 11 –4 Farmers' Association 97977 12 –6 Social Democratic Party 84643 11 –2 Workers' Group 40236 5 New Zionist Group for the Nation and Autonomy 34697 3 New Democratic Jewish Union Central Polish Electoral Committee 32849 1 –2 Achdus 16841 0 New Party of National Progress 14131 0 0 Group of Workers and Poor Peasants 11733 0 New Russians and Belarusians Rusai baltgudžiai 11289 0 New Group of Polish Workers and Peasants 10995 1 New Economic and Political Union of Lithuanian Farmers 9425 0 0 Landless and Small Landowners Bežemiai ir mažažemiai 8541 0 New Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party 8506 5 –4 Lithuanian German Committee 7975 0 –1 Union of Evangelical Lutherans Evangelikų liūterių sąjunga 7138 0 New Land and Freedom Žemė ir laisvė 5316 0 New Union of Working People Darbo žmonių sąjunga, Związek ludzi pracyj 4201 0 0 Polish Electors of the First District I-os apygardos I-os apylinkės lenkų rinkikai 4105 0 New Committee of Jewish People Žydų liaudies komitetas 3919 0 New Group of Latvians and Germans Latvių ir vokiečių kuopa 2113 0 New Workers' Labour Union of Marijampolė and Alytus Mariampolės ir Alytaus apskrities darbininkų profesinė sąjunga 1468 0 New Association of Kaunas House Owners Kauno namų savininkų draugija 1372 0 New Dalgis 1168 0 New Union of Latvians in Lithuania Lietuvos latvių sąjunga 1130 0 New Workers Party Profesinė darbininkų partija 1044 0 New Agriculturalists and Farmers Žemdirbiai ūkininkai 923 0 New Workers, Small Landowners and Landless of Panevėžys Panevėžio darbininkai, bežemiai ir mažažemiai 647 0 New Socialist Day Labourer's Group Socialistų rankpelnių grupė 247 0 New Polish Group of Prienai Prienų miesto lenkų kuopa 112 0 New Independents 10597 0 –2 –34 Nohlen & Stöver. Lietuvos statistikos metraštis,https://osp.stat.gov.lt/services-portlet/pub-edition-file?id=13581 Lietuvos statistikos metraštis 1924–1926 m. Valstybės spaustuvė 1927 I Kaunas 72–73 lt Ragauskas & TamošaitisAivas Ragauskas Mindaugas Tamošaitis Lietuvos Respublikos Seimų I (1922–1923), II (1923–1926), III (1926–1927), IV (1936–1940) narių biografinis žodynas https://www.academia.edu/9775690 Didysis Lietuvos parlamentarų biografinis žodynas 3 978-9955-20-345-2 Vilniaus pedagoginis universitetas 2007 lt 566 Aftermath Though the Christian Democratic Bloc achieved a plurality of the seats, they were unable to form a majority coalition, nor did the opposition parties manage to unite against them. The next President and Prime Minister were thus elected via violations of electoral conduct. Protesting against the Christian Democrats, the opposition parties refused to participate in the election of Aleksandras Stulginskis and he was elected solely with Christian Democratic votes. Two governments led by independent politician Ernestas Galvanauskas were formed, but in both cases they were approved with 38 votes in favor and 38 votes against (2 members of the Seimas did not participate), which the opposition criticized as illegal. The formed government was unstable and the First Seimas was dissolved on 12 March 1923. References Bibliography Eidintas Alfonsas Vytautas Žalys Alfred Erich Senn Ed. Edvardas Tuskenis Lithuania in European Politics: The Years of the First Republic, 1918-1940 Paperback September 1999 St. Martin's Press New York 0-312-22458-3 44, 85 Lithuanian parliamentary election Parliamentary election Lithuanian parliamentary election Category:Parliamentary elections in Lithuania